When I stepped inside the plain black, rectangular building off Highway 435, near the Legends outlets, I was presented with an orange “FACADE” wristband after my tickets were scanned. As I looked around, the phrase “Field Agency for the Controls and Aberrations Defense Energies” was all over the walls.
“FACADE” is the made-up agency investigating a mysterious event that caused the movies shown at an old, rundown movie theater to come to life.
I was initially confused about what Atlas 9 was, as it’s described on their website as an “interactive narrative experience set inside a fictitious 90s movie theater.” I had no idea what to picture from this description.
Then, I had the opportunity to speak with one of the workers, who explained the whole imaginary story behind the Atlas 9 experience to me.
The story goes as follows: a man named Mark ran this old theater and was excited to use his new projector, in hopes of keeping the movie theater up and running. On June 31, 1995, Mark unveils his creation, but something goes wrong and the projector blows up, causing Mark, Melissa, the manager, and the audience to disappear. FACADE was then called in to investigate the situation on July 1, 1995.
After learning this, my team and I scanned the microchips in our wristbands to create our agent profiles. We were then sent to explore the theater, which was in what is considered a “Liminal Zone” — where the movies had come to life.
Each room had a completely different look, texture and vibe, flowing from one to another until we were unable to tell how we’d entered the room in the first place. One room was bright and yellow, with giant boxes of candy spilling pieces onto the floor while an actress dressed as a candy fairy walked around.
Another room was entirely made of glass mirrors, making it impossible to tell where we were in the room, as we saw endless reflections all around us.
My personal favorite was the jazz room, which had a Great Gatsby aesthetic with its gold accents and a saxophonist playing front and center on a stage.
We continued exploring the movie theater, encountering tasks as we navigated through various rooms, doors and tunnels. The task cards, called FAZEs, gave us information about what the anomaly created by the incident was and how it had been affected by the cinemorphic energy released from the projector.
We tracked our progress through the different rooms using the INTERFAZEs located around the theater, observing how we were ranked as “FACADE” investigators compared to the others.
Then came the grand finale. Only once every couple of hours, there’s a live performance in the auditorium. Seated in one of the front two rows, we had come down into the theater from the bar and snack shop on the second floor.
The 1920s-themed bar also offered various non-alcoholic drinks, and you could watch the auditorium stage from the bar window.
The lights dimmed even further, and three figures in cloaks appeared on stage. All of a sudden, they whipped out lightsaber-like light-up sticks and began fighting each other. The dancers continued to run around the stage, interacting with the vast LED screen behind them.
The screen displayed incredible graphics, coordinated to match the orchestral music and the dancers’ movement.
To close the live performance, a woman dressed as an alien entered the stage and began the most amazing, jaw-dropping aerial show. She wound herself up and spun down the silk, barely missing the ground.
By the end of her performance, I was sitting on the edge of my seat, hoping another aerialist would come on stage to continue the show. Instead, my team and I headed into the pizza restaurant at the entrance after we’d played some of the many arcade games and used the amusing photo booths.
Then it was time for my team and me to say goodbye to our FACADE personas for the night.
Though I’m still not one hundred percent sure of what I was investigating at the Atlas 9 movie theater, I definitely left with a newfound appreciation for set designers. The attention to detail on every item in every room of the theater was phenomenal.
Not only was the execution of Atlas 9 outstanding, but the experience itself was a lot of fun.
I encourage you to take a trip to Atlas 9 sometime soon. While I can’t say that you won’t be confused by what’s happening inside the theater, I can assure you the experience is one to remember. I know I’d take a trip back to July 1, 1995, anytime to try and solve this investigation again.
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